Creating better email campaigns

February 11, 2011

Over the past few months I've been working on a best practice guide for email creative as part of the DMA's Best Practices hub. Its taken a while to put together but it should be ready for release very soon. Its not meant as a definitive guide on how to create fantastic email campaigns but more a collection of ideas gained from experience.

We all know that the inbox is a very congested place and getting more so. There is a stat that says on average a reader takes 2 - 5 seconds to decide whether to read or delete an email. This means that grabbing the users attention is all important and the better your email looks, the more likely they are to read it.

Here are ten points to consider when building your email campaign:

1. Test ! Test ! and Test again - think of a testing strategy and what you want to achieve. 2. Design - Don't rely heavily on images to make your design work. 3. Coding - Keep it simple and clean. 4. Rendering - Preview your email in as many different clients as possible. 5. Content - Use your brand to promote confidence. 6. Web to Email - Web pages don't translate directly to email without thought. 7. Personalisation - Avoid mistakes and keep it relevant. 8. Subject Lines - Grab the recipients attention. 9. The Fold - Remember all your email isn't visible at one time. 10. Mobile Clients - Don't forget about them as they are used more and more.

I will be presenting the complete whitepaper at the DMA Creative & Deliverability Masterclass in London on March 24th. Whether you are new to email marketing or just want to improve your current email marketing strategy I think you will find this event very useful. Simply click here to book your place online. Hope to see you there.